Despite the diffusion of constantly advancing technologies into every day life, traditional mass marketing techniques still remain as the most popular way to market to consumers. In particular, traditional repetitive TV and radio advertising campaigns and print advertisement campaigns dominate the focus of most large scale advertising campaigns. Such traditional advertising mechanisms are essentially broadcast messages—they target very wide audiences of potential consumers.
Such traditional advertising mechanisms attempt to maximize the positive impact of the advertising effort by communicating their advertising message to parties that they think will be most interested in the respective product or service. Expert demographic research analysts constantly study what products and services are purchased by what types of people, and by what messaging approaches and communication mechanisms such different types of people can be best reached. In deciding, for example, on what television stations and which time slots to air certain advertisements, such demographic analysts will identify target demographic groups for the product, and then select commercial messaging and schedule time slots on various television stations to best reach those target demographic groups. Traditional print advertisements work in much the same way, with advertisers choosing publications and placements within publications with the goal of having the advertisement be seen by a high proportion of persons likely to be interested in the product or swayable by the advertising message.
When trying to gain insight to consumer needs and desires across various demographics, demographic research analysts are hampered by having only a few data sources that provide limited and often conflicting data. Conventionally, consumer preferences could only be derived indirectly through inferential demographic studies based upon the success of certain past promotional efforts, or directly through limited-reach questionnaires or focus groups. Advertisers are constantly seeking ways to communicate with consumers, and target demographic groups of potential buyers in particular, with advertisements that are tailored to their needs, desires, and lifestyles. Nonetheless, the advertising mechanisms and demographic information gathering techniques presently employed fall far short of ideal for a variety of reasons.
While the exposure to potential consumers is fairly large with traditional television, radio, and print advertisements, this exposure lasts only for a short period of time. Most problematic is that the exposure to such advertisements more often than not occurs at a time when the consumer is least ready to purchase (e.g., at home watching TV). Thus, even if the advertisement does reach a targeted consumer demographic, and even if one or more consumers are enticed to purchase the product or service or shop at the store advertised, those enticed consumers must still remember to follow up on the offer at a later, more convenient time on their own.
Thus, retail stores are constantly searching for better ways to reach and influence consumers with traditional promotional mechanisms. A recent attempt by large retail chains directed at building brand loyalty in consumers includes the innovation of consumer loyalty club programs. Such loyalty programs entice consumers to join by offering rewards, such as coupons, cash back rewards, or eligibility for special promotional offers, that are offered only to consumers that participate in the loyalty program. A consumer joins such a program by typically providing the retailer (either at a retail location during checkout, or during check out at the retailer's website) sign-up information including their identity, interests, address, email address, and the like. Sometimes, a nominal membership fee is also required to join or renew membership on a periodic (e.g., yearly) basis. To qualify for their loyalty rewards, the participating consumer must present their loyalty club card or provide some sort of other identification each time they make a purchase from the retailer. After a certain number of purchases or a certain dollar amount of cumulative purchases is met by participating consumer, they will qualify to redeem certain rewards.
Retailers benefit from consumer loyalty programs in two manners. First, participating consumers are given an incentive to always make purchases from the same retailer or retail chain as opposed to competitors. Secondly, retailers are able to collect fairly targeted information regarding participating consumers' purchasing histories. For example, over time a retailer may notice that a certain consumer participating in their consumer loyalty program frequently buys CDs for a particular style of music. As the number of participating consumers in a loyalty program grows, the retailer is able to develop demographic data concerning its own actual consumers. This reduces their sole reliance upon more generic demographic data compiled by the researching efforts of professional advertising and demographic analysts. Since the retailer has this information as well as the participating consumer's home and email addresses, the retailer may be able to send targeted advertisements directly to certain consumer participating in the loyalty club program (such as by promotional inserts included with mailings of consumer rewards certificates) with a strong likelihood that such targeted advertisements are reaching certain desired demographic groups. In this manner, the above-described user could be provided with lists of newly released CDs of the particular music type that the user likes, or coupons providing percentage discounts on volume CD purchases. Additionally, such information may also be used to entice consumers regarding products and other related areas. Over time, retailers can monitor whether, for example, those specific customers that have a demonstrated history of purchasing CDs on a regular basis may also demonstrate receptiveness to advertisements regarding other music and audio entertainment items, such as portable digital audio players, home theatre speakers, and the like.
While they comprise a significant advance in the area of consumer demographic research and advertisement targeting, current advertising mechanisms that leverage demographic information from customer loyalty programs still fail to capitalize fully upon the potential to provide targeted advertising where it would be most useful—in situations where the consumer is ready for an immediate purchase. In particular, it would be desirable if mechanisms were available that enabled retailers and other advertisers to provide demographically targeted advertisements to consumers within a retail store environment. Thus, the effectiveness of advertising investments would be greatly improved that the advertisements were not only reaching the right demographic audience, but also reaching them at or near the time when they are most likely to make a purchase in order to maximize the ability to influence the purchasing decision. While traditional print and electronic mailings generated in conjunction with current loyalty programs may be targeted to consumers based upon demographic and purchase history information of loyalty program participants compiled over time, such mailings nonetheless reach the consumer (if at all) when the consumer is not necessarily interested in or thinking about making a purchase. If and when the consumer eventually decides to make a purchase, the targeted mailing could be long forgotten or even lost.
Traditionally, retailers relied upon the skills of experienced sales staff to identify customers within their stores and market products at the point of sale. A skilled and experienced salesperson would be able to read a customer demographically, for example, by directly observing their age, sex, marital status and the like, and then use those observations in efforts to market products to the customer. Many conventional large retail chains, however, have diverted away from the salesperson driven approach used in the past. Large retail chains rely predominantly upon large volume sales and diverse inventory in order to curb costs and thus pass lower prices on to the consumer. As skilled sales staff has been phased out of usage, a primary mechanism for marketing to targeted demographics of consumers at the point of sale has been lost.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for improved systems and methods for achieving demographically targeted advertising at the point of sale. It would be advantageous if such systems and associated methods were capable of automatically identifying consumers demographically within a retail store environment and, in response, automatically providing those consumers with demographically targeted advertising at the point of sale.